The arrangements for the Barbara songs on this album were prepared by Daniel Fueter for a 2013 concert program and include a concertina played by singer Rea Claudia Kost.
Historical Context
Hanns Eisler and Bertolt Brecht, the composer and lyricist, were in Hollywood as exiles, having fled the Nazis during World War II.
Compositional Technique
Hanns Eisler's 'Hollywood Songbook' includes settings of wedding announcements from newspapers and popular songs, marking a departure from traditional recital song conventions.
Performer Biography
Daniel Fueter, the pianist on this album, has written around a hundred works of incidental music for plays in the German-speaking world.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Hanns Eisler's approach to setting texts to music was artistic rather than scientific, allowing him to radically fragment poems like those by Hölderlin.
Composition History
The music for Brecht's play 'Schweyk in the Second World War' is considered by Hanns Eisler to be the most important music he wrote for any of Brecht's plays.
Composer Biography
Hanns Eisler wrote more settings of texts by Kurt Tucholsky, a clear-sighted critic of society and pacifist, than any other composer.
